So why the resurgence in my desire to write?  Maybe because a few things have changed, maybe because I feel I have some time back on my hands and maybe just because it is a Monday – I’ve fluffed the socks, done the dishes and am waiting for my wonderful bride to come home.  Who knows.  Who knows if anyone actually reads this thing anymore besides me. Ehh – such is life.

Friendship.  I posted on my facebook page today that I was “amused at the moment. Not in a humorous way, but also not quite in a shocked way; more of a disappointed pondering.”  You see, there are times in your life when because of past experiences you can almost anticipate the results before hand, yet continue to hope for the best in the meantime.  Then, as if history has cruelly repeated itself, your predictions are proved true and your thesis confirmed, and you want to be disappointed, yet you can’t.  You wish you were surprised, yet you’re ambivalent because you knew what was coming all along.

So what does friendship have to do with this?  Well, without giving you the complete autobiography of JLS, suffice it to say for this abridged version of my 26 years, that I have found myself in instances when “friends” turn against you because of environmental changes.  People claiming to be my best friends for years, suddenly not speaking to you because you no longer have one time in common.  I have various theories on this – one of them is that most people are afraid to have any confrontation (don’t read this as argument, read it as having intense conversation when disagreements may surface), therefore they shun you.  This can be delved into deeper in a later post.

You see, in my mind, there are friendships that God brings into your life for a time, an era in your journey through this life.  There are some friends that will last forever and some that last one week; like when you move into a dorm, your frat house, your first job, the short term friends that help you acclimate yourself to your surroundings.  There are also friends that are long term friends, those throughout high school, college, or a decade in time.  You may gradually loose touch, but nothing was actually coming between you and those friends other than distance – geographical, life stages – whatever that distance may be.  The other form of friendship are the ones you think you can count on.  They are the current friendships that have developed because of your environment.  You’re close, there is nothing that is fundamentally changing in your relationship and these are people you would expect to be your friends through thick and thin, and have told you that.

It seems this latter type of friendship has been tested more in my life than others.  You see, I’ve moved around a bit, I’ve been to three different colleges, I’ve changed jobs quite a bit and those short term friendships have been incredible and they are experiences I will always enjoy.  I have long term friends – my best friend I have now known for 13 years, we live about a thousand miles apart but we have some amazing connection that when we talk it’s as if we’re living next door the whole time.  However, the here and now relationships have been the most fragile – the ones I would expect to be the deepest.  Why?

Here’s where my awareness of history repeating itself comes into play.  You see, the friendships that have quite often been amputated with one singular event have been those within a specific church.  Many of you are cringing at this point.  You’re one of two people – one who says “see, those hypocrite Christians are no different and will drop you like a rock.”; the other says “you shouldn’t be airing this in the open, it’s like you’re having an argument in the middle of the street with your pastor.”.  To both, I say – stop.  Just listen to what I have to say.  You’re both right, and you’re both wrong at the same time.

Just recently my aforementioned amazing wife and I decided that we probably were being drawn to a new church, not knowing which one that may actually be.  We have been at our current church for three years now and love the people, love the pastor and have friends that are close as family (not to mention family) that attend there as well.  However, we’re being drawn elsewhere for various reasons that have no bearing on this post.  When we started having a discussion about this six months ago, I had a feeling that as soon as we were no longer there every Sunday, the “friends” that we had would cut us out.  We’d be blackballed.

We’ve now been at a different church for nearly three months now.  We’ve had two elders, a pastor and one good friend that have called or gotten together with us to ask.  Let me just say that I was actually shocked and glad that the leaders of the church noticed we were not there and were willing to sit down and talk with us – whether or not they agree with us is fine, but at least they asked.  Our “friends” however I’m more shocked with.  There are about 10 couples that I wanted to imagine would at least give us a “what’s up” on facebook, or send a text message or something of that ilk.  However, as I said, only one couple has actually sought us out and allude that they still care about us and our friendship.

Now, can we do more to reach out to these friends?  Sure, no doubt.  However what becomes comical is that you and your family nearly become the untouchables when you decide to leave a church.  Is this really what a friendship is based on?  Is this really how shallow our relationship was?

Back to the two types of people reading this post.  To those that scream “hypocrites”.  I say – yep.  But I also say, it shouldn’t be that way.  Friendship, especially those in a Christian community should not be based solely on where you go to church.  Christian friendship should be the deepest ones we have, they should be the first people to call and ask if you’re OK.  They should be the safest and ones that are willing to be the messiest.  However, we are in a world that has a lot of hurts, hangups and fear.  Thus, when faced with uncomfortable situations, most people, Christian or unchristian, tend to run.  Ignore it and the hurt will never surface.  So, we have friendships that wash out to sea because people are too afraid to have those “confrontational” conversations.

To those of you who cry “you shouldn’t air this publicly, this is between you and a brother in Christ” I say.  Wrong.  This is a widespread issue that a symptom of Christians being unwilling to have deep friendships that are based on PEOPLE not an ENVIRONMENT.  Have the tough conversations and have a base of understanding that you can move forward to.  People that do not worship in the same place are not lepers.  If you notice you friends have not been around in three months, what’s wrong with calling them (as you used to).  If Christ is the King, you have every reason to have a friendship – and we know that Christ is the King.

As I said, it is an unfortunate fact that I have now had friendships that I have been cut off from.  I have been made the leper because of my decision to worship every week at a different church.  So much so, that people who called me every week, haven’t called me in 12; people that came to a small group study at my house, no longer come; friends that once seemed to care have now proved that they never actually cared enough to get messy in my own life.

I have a saying, give someone a few beers and you’ll find out who they really are.  I guess in a sense I could say (unfortunately) that if you want to test a friendship in a church – leave the building and find out who calls to check in. You see, what makes these friendships different from the ones that are short-term is the fact that they have been established, they have been proved to be more than acclimation catalysts, they are “real”.  Nothing has caused a chasm, nothing has caused a falling out per se, simply a change in worship venue has caused a breaking up – something that is truly petty.

Bottom line, I know that not every person I meet will be my lifelong best friends.  However, I also know that friendships should not cease simply because we no longer go to church together.  Even if it did mean that we had less in common – a friend calls someone to check to make sure they’re OK.  How do you know that we, other families, etc… that have not been around for months have not had a major health issue, are not in some great need and if you really care for them should you not ensure that they are not in need of something you can help with?

Maybe this is just venting, but maybe not.  Have friendships grown so shallow that, as a friend of mine recently said, “because of recent events in my life, I have past “friends” that won’t touch me with a ten foot pole.”.  Aren’t real friends those that come into the slough of despond to help rake you out, walk along side you in some way be an encouragement and at the very least, shouldn’t a Christian friend be willing to face the tough side of life with another friend?

So this $100M Government initiative is right up my alley right? I mean, this is fiscal responsibility at its best, yes? We’ll use both sides of the paper for printing – technology that has never before been available. We’ll cancel a few phone lines, turn off our computer monitors when not in use, you’ve heard the news reports – hopefully.

Well, let’s take a look at this type of savings plan and what happens when the rubber meets the road for the average American.

The total outlay budget this year for our Federal Government is $3,107,000,000,000 (that is $3.107 Trillion), according to whitehouse.gov and the Office of Management and Budget’s page. Our aggressive $100M savings plan thus breaks out this way:

$100,000,000 savings/$3,107,000,000,000 outlay budget = .000032 or .0032% total savings

That’s right, our Federal Government is tightening the belt an astonishing .0032%.

Now, according to the Census Bureau, the median US Household Income (HHI) was $50,233 in 2007. Let’s say aggressively that income rose 5% in 2008 and 2009 bringing the median HHI to $55,382 at the end of this year. Assuming that the average American family also took it upon themselves to sacrificially save .0032% this year for the security of their future, each average American family would save annually:

$1.77

That’s planning for a solid future, being fiscally responsible with managing your household and truly, cutting back on your standard of living.

Now, in a similar manner the Federal Government, once again according to whitehouse.gov, is budgeting total receipts of $2,700,000,000,000 for a short fall of $407,000,000,000 to expenditures. The spending plan breaks out this way:

$407,000,000,000 deficit/$2,700,000,000,000 receipts = .1507 or 15.07% over spending

Now, when a country overspends, it has to borrow, either from another country (China) or has to mint more money (dilution of gold backed funds aka inflation and borrowing against money that has not yet been earned and taxes paid on those same earnings by my great-grandchildren). In other words, loans are needed to fill the gap.

Once again, let’s bring this down to real life and assume that the average American family is over spending their HHI by 15.07% or $8,307. The average American family now has choices, take out a loan(s), get more open credit or some type of combination of both. However, at some point in time that same family will run out of credit available to them, max out their monthly income to just paying loans and – - – shock, if they cannot up their income will most likely loose everything. We happen to be in this very case in this country. People and business have overspent, primarily with credit and we are no feeling those results nationwide.

To draw this all together, if the average American family were to spend like the Federal Government, we can quickly see the disastrous results. If that same American family, faced with liquidity issues were to decide to start saving like the Federal Government, the savings would only amount to $1.77 against their $8,307 yearly over-spending or .02%. Eventually the over expenditure would catch up and the family would be rendered insolvent.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on this. I just thought I’d share the truths of the Feds (all parties are at fault here) compared to the Average American Family.

Dick Morris on The O’Reilly Factor regarding the shortcomings of a tax policy that allows a majority to not pay taxes.

Does anyone remember Carter or at least read untainted history?

What I hope for most is the continued protection of our country against attack.  I do not think that there is any more integral job for the President then to ensure the safety of our land.

Secondly, I hope for the economic strength to return – however this cannot be falsified by issuing new currency and inflating the severely damaged tire.  The tire must first be repaired with correct oversight, a natural shaking out of the markets, and individual stimulus in the form of tax breaks/incentives among others.  I am a firm believer that the President often receives too much credit or scorn for the economy, however the plan we seeing now is history repeating itself – be it the American Great Depression of 1929 or the more recent Japanese Depression of the 1990′s (incidentally, if you want to see a mirrored program look at the Japanese v. Obama plans – Japan’s failed miserably with several expensive stimulus packages!).

Thirdly, is the issue of a more Pro-Life direction.  I hold no breath for this as we all know the extensive platform that Obama has laid out – however there is always hope!

We have a historic person in office right now, which is a testament to how far this country has come in basically a generation.  However, what remains to be seen is if this is truly a new era, a correct change of direction or simply just another modern-day “say-anything-to-be-elected” politician of another color.

Mr. Obama,

Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things to you myself.

While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introduce myself. You can call me ‘Cory the well driller’. I am a 54 year old high school graduate. I didn’t go to college like you, I was too ready to go ‘conquer the world’ when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at a time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80′s oil boom.

I didn’t get any help from the government, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. My businesses did not start not a result of privilege. It is the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, self reliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly.

From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. I couldn’t afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).

A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs.

Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on my income taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behind the second time… $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Of course, the personal stress endured through these experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now to memorialize it all.

I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along the way, I hired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2.

5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn’t work out for 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills.

Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine working properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.

2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.

A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customers immediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for as many credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this 3rd business going.

Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers’ pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister).

I spent the next 5 years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers’ product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that’s ok, I didn’t expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.

Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the next few months.

This should work out, but if it doesn’t it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed our countrys’ (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages.

You see, at the very time when I couldn’t get a business loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were working with ACORN and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobs for more East Texans.

It’s funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.

You see, Mr. Obama, I’m the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I’m the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I’m the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn’t want to take a risk, and wouldn’t demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I’m the guy you characterize as ‘the Americans who can afford it the most’ that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution ‘to spread the wealth’ to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture.

I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What’s worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves.

Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land.

What is so terribly sad about this is this: America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach on every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states.

If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance.

You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn’t it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our country.

It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding dependence on government. What’s remarkable is that you, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn’t need my money if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.

You see, I know because I’ve had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.

Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I’ve seen what the average percentage of your income has been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office – can you pronounce “politically motivated”), you averaged of less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else’s money you are giving to them.

I won’t say what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you or Joe Biden (don’t you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.

In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open debate.

If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.

God help us…

Cory Miller

*just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be. P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American…

www.cmillerdrilling.com is his website in case you’re interested.

Dick Bott regarding Obama’s “Above my pay grade” response to when babies deserve human rights.

See the entire editorial transcript HERE.